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Make Your Point > Archived Issues > VAUNT

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pronounce VAUNT:

VONT
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connect this word to others:

When a president boasts that he's ended eight wars in one year, that's vaunting: empty bragging.

The word vaunt traces back to the Latin vanus, which meant "empty, idle, or void," and so vaunt is cousins with several words that also connote emptiness: vanish, vain, vanity, vaing____ ("pride or boasting that's empty or exaggerated"), and _vane___ ("to fade away, or to disappear quickly").

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)  

definition:

"Vaunt" traces back through French to a Latin word meaning "to boast," or more literally, "to speak empty words."

When you vaunt things—often your own skills, virtues, or achievements—you brag about them in an exaggerated way.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

"Vaunt" is a verb, the transitive kind: "They vaunted their success;" "She vaunted her achievements for fifteen minutes straight at dinner and never asked about anyone else;" "Exxon-Mobile vaunts their role in adapting to climate change, claiming they're 'accelerating the world's path to decarbonization.' Sure, yeah, okay."

Other forms: 

The other verb forms are "vaunted" and "vaunting."

"Vaunt" can also be a noun, meaning "a boastful claim or comment," but it's uncommon and tends to sound old-fashioned. Here's Washington Irving: "His lordship had retired to rest... with the sportsman's vaunt that he would 'bag the fox in the morning.'"

how to use it:

Pick the semi-common, scholarly-sounding word "vaunt" when you want to call some extra attention to the emptiness or exaggeration of someone's boasting.

Say that someone is vaunting their own skills, abilities, qualities, virtues, achievements, intellect, athleticism, popularity, etc. Or to be more general, say that someone is vaunting himself or herself.

To strike a more neutral tone, you might say that a book or a website vaunts something's merits, beauty, charm, or history.

examples:

"M. Monnier does not vaunt his erudition though he may be an archaeologist of the most distinguished merit."
  — Staff, New York Times, 21 February 1886

"Even if we are less indispensable than other nations — due to our huge military, economy, standard of living and rule of law — real public diplomacy would know not to vaunt that status. To counter the anti-Americanism growing not just in Muslim countries but in Latin America, it is time to treat others with greater respect and to present a more humble image around the world."
  — Ben Barber, Salon, 4 December 2010

has this page helped you understand "vaunt"?

   

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this term, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.




study it:

Explain the meaning of "vaunt" without saying "brag about" or "boast about."

try it out:

Maybe you've heard of humblebragging? That's when someone vaunts themselves, or vaunts their wealth or intellect or popularity, while pretending to not be vaunting themselves. Like this: "I can't believe they give a bozo like me a seven-figure paycheck."

Some more examples, from Henry Alford:

"Those who vaunt their supposed idiocy or role as impostor include Joe Jonas ('Totally walked down the wrong escalator at the airport from the flashes of the cameras... Go me') and the 'Jeopardy!' champ Ken Jennings ('Hey, if you put me in your /celebs list, I'm flattered, but let's be honest: that's the most expansive definition of "celeb" possible')."

What are some other examples of humblebragging that you've heard? Underneath the fake humility, what is it that people are vaunting?




before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month is Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Fragments.

In each issue, check out an excerpt from a master of American prose, one in which I've changed the lovely sentence fragments into ugly but grammatically correct sentences. Try restoring the excerpt to its original glory by chiseling those sentences down into fragments.

You can check out some examples here.

Try this last one today. It's from William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury:

If it had been cloudy I could have looked at the window, thinking what he said about idle habits. I could have been thinking it would be nice for them down at New London if the weather held up like this. Why shouldn’t it? It is the month of brides, the voice that breathed She ran right out of the mirror, out of the banked scent.

To see the original version, scroll all the way down.

review this word:

1. The opposite of VAUNT could be

A. END or TOPPLE.
B. LAUNCH or BEGIN.
C. HIDE or DOWNPLAY.

2. The king in _____ vaunts: "_____"

A. Shakespeare's play Henry IV, Part 2 .. Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.
B. J. R. R. Tolkien's novel The Return of the King .. For she is a fair maiden, fairest lady of a house of queens.
C. Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem "Ozymandias" .. My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: / Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!




Answers to the review questions:
1. C
2. C

From the game: There are lots of different ways to render each highlighted bit into a fragment! If your version pleases your ears, then you did great.

Here's the original version:

If it had been cloudy I could have looked at the window, thinking what he said about idle habits. Thinking it would be nice for them down at New London if the weather held up like this. Why shouldn’t it? The month of brides, the voice that breathed She ran right out of the mirror, out of the banked scent.


a final word:


I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.


From my blog:
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A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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